The Davis Sisters

The Davis Sisters were one of the original female country groups. The Davis Sisters were not actually related; Skeeter Davis's real name was Mary Frances Penick, but she adopted the stage name of Skeeter Davis. Betty Jack and Skeeter met each other in high school. They began to immediately form a close relationship and had a close musical relationship as well. Eventually, realizing that they had the same goals and ideas that they would someday be in the music business, singing and recording records, they decided that they would create their own duo group. The Davis Sisters was thus created. The duo began appearing regularly on radio shows in Cincinnati and Detroit. They first started recording in Detroit. In 1953, they landed a recording contract with RCA Records. While recording for RCA, the sessions were backed up by future record producer Chet Atkins. That same year, they released their first single called "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know". The song was mournful and heartbreaking and became a #1 Country hit for the Davis Sisters, as well as a top ten Pop hit. Their duo harmonies mixed the sound of the old Appalachian harmonies of the Delmore Brothers to the more pop inspired sounds of the Everly Brothers Shortly after the release of "I Forgot More Than You'll Ever Know", tragedy struck The Davis Sisters. They were in a car accident on August 2, 1953, which killed Betty Jack instantly and seriously injured Skeeter. Skeeter reformed the group with Betty Jack's older sister, Georgia. The new duo continued to perform and record until 1956, but failed to have another hit. "Georgia was a fine singer, but it just wasn't the same," Skeeter said in the liner notes to 1995's The Essential Skeeter Davis. Skeeter Davis went on to a successful solo career. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.